Microsoft has officially taken over publishing rights for “future iterations” of The Outer Worlds from Private Division, and that news arrived a day after Take-Two Interactive’s president said the company was fully committed to the franchise.
During Take-Two Interactive’s Q4 2021 earnings call (via Seeking Alpha), CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed that The Outer Worlds has sold-in more than 3 million units since it was released in October 2019. Later in the call, Take-Two president Karl Slatoff answered a question about the Obsidian Entertainment-developed game, stating that the company was not only excited about the future of The Outer Worlds, but was happy to be a part of it.
“And we will be participating in the franchise and whatever the future holds for that franchise,” Slatoff said. “So we feel really good about it. And we think that it’s still building audience and this game itself has a lot of life left in it. And in the future — we’ll see what the future holds for it. But we do think it’s a long-term franchise and it is certainly something that we’re pleased with the results.”
Take-Two’s comments on being involved in The Outer Worlds’ future were of note mainly due to the fact that Microsoft purchased Obsidian in 2018, and Slatoff’s comments made it seem as though it would retain publishing rights for new installments despite that.
Private Division cleared up the confusion in a statement to Gamasutra, saying that, while the company would still be supporting 2018’s The Outer Worlds, Obsidian and Microsoft would handle the publishing of future iterations.
“Private Division is still supporting and marketing The Outer Worlds, including the upcoming release of Murder on Eridanos DLC on Nintendo Switch,” said the company. “Moving forward, Obsidian and Microsoft will be publishing future iterations in the franchise, and we’re absolutely thrilled to see where they take it.”
For more, check out our review of The Outer Worlds: Murder on Eriadanos DLC, the second and final expansion for the game that is very much a murder-mystery.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
